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GRANT  MONUMENT 
ASSOCIATION- 


Grants 
Banquet 

Thursday  Evening 
April  27th,  J899« 


gPEECHES  OF.,.. 

Hon.  J.  P.  DOLLIVER  and 
Mr.  AUGUSTUS  THOMAS 


PRESENTED  TO  THE 

Long  Island  Historical  Society 


BY 


\     M  J* 


OPEECHES  OF  Hon.  J,  P.  DOLLIVER 
AND  Mr.  AUGUSTUS  THOMAS 
AT  THE  BANQUET  GIVEN  IN 
CELEBRATION  OF  THE  SEVENTY- 
SEVENTH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE 
BIRTH  OF  GENERAL  U.  S.  GRANT, 
AT  "THE  ASTORIA"  ON  THURSDAY, 
APRIL  TWENTY-SEVENTH,  *899 


I 


i 


GRANT'S  BIRTHDAY.- 

April  Twenty-seventh,  J  899. 


Gen.  Wager  Swayne  Presided  at  the  Banquet* 


The  banqicet  being  finished  General  Swayne 
called  the  guests  to  order  and  said: 

Gentlemen :  On  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  within 
the  City  limits,  the  people  of  this  City,  with  the  approval 
of  the  State  and  Nation  have  erected  a  mausoleum  as  a 
monument  to  personal  character,  to  magnificent  achieve- 
ment, and  to  patriotism  !  The  Committee  under  whose 
auspices  that  monument  was  erected,  and  by  whose  care 
it  is  preserved,  also  each  year  on  the  birthday  of  the  hero 
invite  us,  by  an  assemblage  such  as  this,  to  further  com- 
memorate his  virtues,  inculcate  his  example  and  immor- 
talize his  memory  by  stimulating  in  ourselves  those  things 
which  were  in  him,  which  we  are  here  to  celebrate,  that 
he  to  that  extent  may  live  again  in  us.  The  man,  the 
motives  and  the  cause  which  have  thus  brought  us  here, 
could  not  well  have  been  more  exalted,  nor  could  the 
situation  of  our  country  well  be  happier  or  more  glorious 
than  at  present,  nor  the  circumstances  under  which  we 
meet  be  more  enjoyable.  To  all  of  these,  gentlemen,  I 
bid  you  welcome,  in  the  name  of  the  Committee,  and 
rejoice  with  you  that  we  may  so  enjoy  them  together. 

And  as  the  first  to  give  expression  to  those  thoughts 
which  are  appropriate,  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing 
to  you  the  Honorable  Jonathan  P.  Dolliver,  now  and  for 
years  past  a  distinguished  and  valuable  member  of  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States. 


seen  the  Canon  of  "Westminster  open  the 
doors  of  that  venerable  monument  to  admit 
the  silent  American  soldier  into  the  house- 
hold of  English  spoken  fame.  (Applause*) 
The  unchallenged  place  of  General  Grant 
in  history  expresses  the  value  of  his  service  to 
his  own  nation  and  to  his  own  age  and  to  all 
nations  and  all  ages.  Without  a  trace  of  selfish 
ambition  in  his  entire  career,  he  was  in  a  high 
sense  from  his  youth  up  guided  by  an  inward 
monition  that  he  was  to  play  a  supreme  part 
in  the  arena  of  National  affairs.  Twice  in 
his  life,  by  his  own  modest  statement,  he 
distinctly  felt  within  himself  an  intimation  of 
the  future:  once  on  the  day  he  graduated 
at  West  Point  and  again  after  Vicksburg  fell. 
It  may  be  an  idle  fancy,  but  it  is  not  hard  to 
believe,  that  every  step  he  took— from  the 
farm  to  the  Academy,  from  the  Academy 
to  the  frontier,  from  the  frontier  through  the 
Mexican  campaign,  and  thence  to  private 
life,  a  life  of  toil  and  self  suppression,  from 
which,  with  a  timid  and  hesitating  request 
for  a  small  command,  he  emerged  into  the 
Union  Army — was  part  of  the  preparation, 
the  post-graduate  course  for  the  full  equip- 
ment of  this  mysterious  man.    The  greatest 


of  his  lieutenants  said,  "To  me  he  is  a 
mystery,  and  I  believe  he  is  a  mystery  to 
himself."  If  he  had  said  to  his  classmates, 44 1 
will  one  day  take  Scott's  place  on  Review," 
he  would  have  been  laughed  out  of  the  Army. 
If,  at  Vicksburg,  he  had  announced  that  he 
was  the  one  general  in  the  service  able  to 
bring  the  Rebellion  to  an  end,  he  would  have 
gone  the  way  of  all  the  others.  Yet  both 
these  ideas  were  in  his  head,  and  we  cannot 
regret  that  in  the  shadow  of  the  end,  when 
in  pain  and  anguish  he  was  writing  the  story 
of  his  public  life,  he  was  moved  to  throw 
this  light  upon  the  hidden  life  he  lived  within 
himself.  There  are  those  who  impeach  the 
whole  social  fabric  because  it  imposes  upon 
all  a  strenuous  struggle  for  existence,  and 
we  have  often  heard  that  opportunity  alone 
makes  the  difference  between  failure  and 
success.  That  is  the  philosophy  of  a  little 
world ;  for  we  know  that  without  burdens 
there  is  no  strength,  and  that  in  exposed 
places,  where  the  storms  of  all  skies  beat 
upon  it,  there  grows  a  rugged  fibre  of  man- 
hood which  is  the  master  of  opportunity,  a 
victor  over  circumstances,  a  crowned  athlete 
in  the  games  of  fortune  and  achievement. 


General  Grant  belongs  to  the  new 
departure,  which  dates  from  I860*  Though 
a  man  of  mature  years,  he  can  scarcely  he 
said  to  have  lived  before  that  time*  He 
did  not  take  enough  interest  in  the  Army 
to  retain  his  commission,  nor  in  his  Missouri 
farm  to  make  a  living  out  of  it,  nor  in 
the  leather  business  in  Galena  to  go  back 
to  lock  up  the  store  after  he  heard  of  the 
fall  of  Fort  Sumpter.  He  had  only  voted 
once  and  his  politics  were  so  ambiguous, 
that,  with  the  inheritance  of  a  Whig,  he 
joined  a  Know  Nothing  lodge,  and  while 
his  sympathies  v/ere  with  Douglas,  he  drilled 
the  Lincoln  Wideawakes*  It  almost  looks 
as  if  Providence  needing  him  for  the  new 
age,  kept  him  clear  and  free  from  the  con- 
fusion of  many  tongues  that  preceded  it*  It 
is  well  nigh  impossible  for  us  to  make  our 
way  through  the  political  wilderness  of  fifty 
years  ago*  The  most  pathetic  thing  in  the 
history  of  the  Nation  is  the  picture  of  our 
fathers  poring  for  generations  over  the 
musty  volumes  of  the  old  debates— wearing 
the  Federalist  and  Madison  papers  to  the 
covers — in  their  vain  and  hopeless  search  for 
the  foundation  of  the  faith*  Washington 


grandly  comprehended  the  Constitution  he 
had  helped  to  make,  but  this  did  not  keep 
the  legislature  of  Virginia  from  disowning 
its  authority  while  he  yet  lived  in  honored 
retirement  at  Mt.  Vernon.  "Webster,  supreme 
among  the  giants  of  those  days,  vindicated 
the  National  Institutions  in  speeches  that 
have  become  classic  in  the  literature  of  our 
tongue*  But  nobody  can  read  them  without 
a  sense  of  humiliation  that  his  antagonists 
were  able  to  dog  the  steps  of  that  lofty 
argument  with  the  minutes  of  the  Hartford 
Convention,  showing  Massachusetts  on  the 
very  precipice  of  treason  before  she  had 
finished  building  Bunker  Hill  Monument 
( laughter ) .  Jackson  quit  the  game  of 
politics  long  enough  to  swear  his  mighty 
oath,  "By  the  Eternal,  the  Union  must  be 
and  shall  be  preserved,"  but  that  did  not 
prevent  the  State  in  which  he  was  born 
from  organizing  her  people  against  the 
Federal  Government,  while  old  soldiers  of 
the  Revolution  still  survived  among  them* 
Little  by  little  the  Nation  had  shrivelled 
and  diminished,  and  the  important  States 
increased  until,  as  older  men  among  us  can 
remember,  the    money  lenders    of  Europe 


refused  to  take  the  Bonds  of  the  United 
States  unless  they  were  endorsed  by  the 
State  of  Virginia  ( laughter ).  They  coolly 
anticipated  that  they  would  be  able  to  locate 
the  State  of  Virginia  after  the  United  States 
of  America  had  disappeared  from  the  map 
of  the  earth. 

I  would  not  heedlessly  disparage  the 
statesmen  of  that  period.  If  they  were 
called  to  deal  with,  a  situation  to  which  they 
were  not  equal,  it  was  one  for  which  they 
were  not  responsible.  James  Buchanan  was 
not  in  any  sense  an  ordinary  man.  He 
was  all  his  life  a  leader  among  men,  though 
left  at  the  end  of  his  generation  impotently 
trying  to  answer  elemental  and  volcanic 
questions  with  the  dead  phrases  of  an  obsolete 
vocabulary.  The  conclusion  had  come.  The 
time  for  rewriting  the  Constitution  was  at 
hand.  The  joint  debate  of  lawyers  had 
become  an  offence  to  heaven  as  well  as  a 
nuisance  among  men.  The  shadows  upon 
the  path  of  the  Republic  had  grown  too 
dense  to  walk  in.  Yet  the  truth  was  never 
altogether  without  witnesses.  There  were 
always  some  eyes  that  could  see  and  some 
ears  that  could  hear.    But  the  mobs  that 


dragged  Anthony  Burns  through  the  streets 
of  Boston,  what  did  they  care  for  the  testi- 
mony of  John  Quincy  Adams,  still  eloquent 
in  the  grave  ?  And  the  champions  of  free- 
dom worn  out  with  their  long  vigil  in  the 
night  of  slavery,  frantically  denouncing  the 
Constitution  as  a  Covenant  with  Hell,  what 
had  they  learned  from  the  chosen  son  of 
New  England,  who,  in  the  debate  with 
Hayne  had  filled  the  old  Senate  Chamber, 
(where  the  Supreme  Court  now  sits),  with 
an  intellectual  splendor  which  lights  up  its 
narrow  walls  until  this  day?  (Applause.) 

Statesmen  and  people  were  in  the  dark 
together,  and  while  few  could  decern  the 
signs  of  the  times,  and  none  dare  to  look 
the  future  in  the  face,  the  dawn  was  nearer 
than  any  thought  or  hoped;  for  within 
two  years  from  the  day  the  militia  of 
Virginia  paraded  about  the  scaffold  of  John 
Brown,  the  soul  of  that  poor  old  immortal 
mad  man  was  marching  before  the  mightest 
armed  host  the  world  ever  saw,  upon  whose 
banners  were  written  the  sublime  promises 
of  Public  Liberty. 

That  was  our  heroic  age,  and  out  of 
it  came  forth  our  ideal  heroes:  Lincoln  and 


But,  "Such  a  criticism  of  military  skill,"  if 
you  will  allow  me  to  use  the  words  of  Mr. 
Blaine,  "is  idle  chatter  in  the  face  of  an 
unbroken  career  of  victory."  When  he  was 
appointed  Lieutenant  General  and  placed  in 
command  of  all  the  Armies  of  the  Union 
he  exercised  military  control  over  a  greater 
number  of  men  than  any  General  since  the 
invention  of  fire-arms.  In  the  campaigns  of 
J  864  and  J  865  the  Armies  of  the  Union 
contained  in  the  aggregate  not  less  than  a 
million  men.  The  movements  of  all  these 
vast  forces  were  kept  in  harmony  by  his 
comprehensive  mind  and  in  the  grand  con- 
summation which  insured  Union  and  Liberty, 
his  name  became  inseparably  associated  with 
the  true  glory  of  his  country. 

I  care  nothing  for  Alexander  or  Caesor 
or  Napoleon.  So  far  as  I  can  make  out 
not  one  of  them  is  entitled  to  the  respect 
of  civilized  men.  Not  one  of  them  stood 
for  an  idea  worth  fighting  for,  much  less 
worth  dying  for.  The  Duke  of  Weimar 
used  to  tell  his  friends  when  they  talked  to 
him  of  Napoleon,  to  be  of  good  courage — 
"This  Napoleonism  is  unjust,  a  falsehood, 
and  cannot  last."    It  did  not  last,  and  to- 


day  there  is  hardly  a  trace  of  the  Little 
Corsican  in  Europe  except  his  grave*  There 
can  be  no  great  soldier  without  a  great 
cause,  and  no  cause  is  great  that  is  not 
right*  It  was  the  sublime  fortune  of 
Ulysses  S*  Grant  to  rise  to  the  Chief  Com- 
mand of  an  Army,  whose  line  of  march 
was  upon  the  highway  of  human  progress; 
which  carried  with  its  muskets  the  future 
of  civilization  and  in  its  heart  the  sovereign 
will  of  God.  (Applause*) 

The  French  essayist  to  whose  grotesque 
commentary  on  General  Grant  as  a  soldier 
I  have  before  alluded,  discerned  at  least  one 
thing  in  him  for  a  gtudgmg  eulogy*  He 
says  that  he  was  "A  good  citizen*"  "With- 
out intending  it  he  has  touched  the  secret 
of  this  unique  career*  both  in  the  field  and 
in  the  Capitol — the  secret  of  all  real  service 
of  mankind — the  thing  that  is  making  kings 
ridiculous  and  thrones  unnecessary*  which 
has  abolished  the  aristocracy  of  the  sword  and 
made  that  awkward  and  absurd  weapon  no 
longer  the  master  but  the  obedient  servant  of 
the  State*  The  feature  of  our  Gvil  "War  least 
comprehended  by  foreign  critics*  and  only 
partially  comprehended  by  ourselves*  was  the 


fact  that  as  soon  as  a  conflict  was  over  all 
sides  were  willing  to  put  an  end  to  strife 
and  to  take  up  the  broken  relations  of  civil 
life  in  harmony  and  good  will*  From  a 
human  standpoint  the  advice  of  General 
Scott  to  Mr*  Seward  to  "Let  the  erring 
sisters  go  in  peace,"  contained  a  measure  of 
wisdom;  for  it  must  have  made  men  sick 
at  heart  to  think  of  Gvil  War  with  its 
awful  ministry  of  blood  and  its  legacy  still 
more  terrible  of  fued  and  passion  and  sullen 
malice  left  over  to  plague  the  Nation  long 
after  the  victory  of  arms  was  won*  A 
mere  statesman  in  the  place  of  Lincoln  and 
a  mere  soldier  in  the  place  of  Grant  might 
indeed  have  maintained  the  Government  at 
Washington  and  overthrown  the  Rebellion 
in  the  field*  But  the  world  was  entitled  to 
a  larger  outcome  of  these  four  tempestuous 
years — the  new  birth  of  freedom*  the  new 
National  unity,  the  new  outlook  of  the  Re- 
public in  the  midst  of  the  ages*  There  were 
voices  heard  that  lifted  the  Gvil  War  above 
all  bloodshed  of  history ;  one  at  the  beginning 
saying  with  tender  eloquence,  "We  are  not 
enemies,  but  friends n ;  the  other  at  the  end, 
in  words  that  transfigured  the  face  of  victory 


with  a  divine  illumination,  saying,  "Let  us 
have  peace*"  Is  it  any  wonder  that  within 
a  single  generation  every  evil  passion  of  the 
strife  is  dead,  every  bitter  memory  of  the 
past  forgotten?  Is  it  any  wonder  that  the 
boys  who  cheered  the  defenders  of  Vicksburg 
as  they  stacked  their  arms;  who  divided 
their  rations  with  the  army  of  Northern 
Virginia  while  Grant  and  Lee  sat  down  to 
talk  together  as  comrades  and  countrymen, 
have  done  their  part,  with  the  boys  in  Gray, 
to  bring  in  the  new  era  of  American  patriot- 
ism? Volumes  have  been  written  to  explain 
why  the  Rebellion  came  to  naught,  and  dis- 
pute has  followed  dispute  as  to  which  army 
was  victorious  in  this  engagement  or  in  that, 
while  some  have  even  claimed  that  the  South 
was  never  whipped,  but  only  wore  itself 
out  whipping  us*  But  here  is  a  victory  in 
which  both  the  old  armies  have  a  share — 
that  rich  and  splendid  conquest  of  the  hearts 
of  men:  noblier  and  worthier  in  the  sight 
of  Heaven  than  captive  trophies  or  the 
spoils  of  war* 

It  was  once  in  some  quarters  a  fashion  to 
exaggerate  the  reputation  of  General  Grant  as 
a  soldier  as  a  background  on  which  to  draw 


a  mean  picture  of  his  figure  in  civil  life* 
I  have  no  sympathy  with  any  such  opinion. 
It  is  not  credible  that  God  endowed  a  man 
with  the  faculties  required  to  order  the 
steps  of  a  million  men  in  arms  and  at  the 
same  time  left  his  eyes  holden  that  he 
should  not  see  the  needs  of  his  age  and  the 
destiny  of  his  country.  "What  man  of  his 
time  had  a  clearer  appreciation  of  the  value 
of  the  Public  Credit  or  did  as  mucn  he  to  es- 
tablish the  disordered  finances  of  the  Gvil 
War  upon  a  safe  foundation.  (Applause.) 
When  he  took  the  oath  of  office  in  1869 
he  found  the  country  filled  with  clamor 
about  the  payment  of  the  public  debt, 
some  demanding  its  settlement  in  depreciated 
notes;  others  calling  for  new  issues  of 
paper  promises,  the  cheap  and  easy  product 
of  the  engraver's  art,  with  which  to  wipe 
out  the  bonds  which  had  been  issued  for 
the  common  defense.  Into  that  noisy  con- 
troversy came  this  calm  and  immovable 
man  and  from  the  East  Portico  of  the 
Capitol  uttered  words  that  have  become  part 
of  the  National  character,  "Let  it  be  under- 
stood that  no  repudiator  of  one  farthing 
of  the  National  Debt   will   be  trusted  in 


any  public  place/*  and  from  that  hour  the 
credit  of  the  great  Republic,  without  limit 
and  without  terms,  has  been  as  good  as 
shining  gold  in  all  the  market  places  of 
the  earth*  (Applause*) 

I  count  it  also  as  a  part  of  General 
Grant's  place  in  history  that  he  gave  the 
sanction  of  his  office  to  the  most  benignant 
treaty  ever  drawn  between  two  nations — 
the  treaty  by  which  a  deep-seated  inter- 
national difference  was  submitted  to  a  high 
tribunal  instead  of  being  made  a  cause  of 
War  between  two  kindred  peoples,  which  in 
the  order  of  Providence  are  to  stand  side 
by  side  for  the  freedom  of  the  world* 
(Applause*)  Thus  the  man  of  war  becomes 
the  advocate  of  the  world's  peace,  and 
turning  to  his  own  countrymen  in  his  second 
appearance  to  take  the  oath  as  President,  he 
makes  a  confession  of  his  faith  in  the 
future  of  our  race,  so  serene  and  devout 
that  it  reflects  the  inspired  visions  of  old, 
and  gives  reality  to  the  rapt  aspirations  of 
the  poets  and  prophets  of  all  centuries* 

In  his  last  annual  message  General 
Grant  laments  the  fact  that  he  was 
"Called    to   the  office   of  chief  executive 


without  any  previous  political  training/* 
He  was  too  busy  in  the  years  that  inter- 
vened between  his  auction  of  stock  and 
farm  machinery  on  the  little  Missouri  home- 
stead and  his  entrance  into  the  White  House 
to  learn  much  about  politics,  either  as  a 
science  or  an  art*  But  whatever  he  lacked 
in  the  experience  that  makes  the  seasoned 
politician,  he  had  at  least  learned  the  most 
essential  lesson  in  the  education  of  an  Amer- 
ican statesman  :  that  the  people  can  be  trusted 
to  reach  a  just  conclusion  in  the  settlement 
of  all  questions  which  affect  their  welfare*  It 
was  that  steady  confidence  that  enabled  him. 
when  the  Santo  Domingo  treaty  was  rejected 
by  the  Senate  in  a  storm  of  vituperation  from 
which  even  the  President  did  not  escape,  to 
appeal  to  the  people  of  the  United  States 
and  in  the  language  of  his  special  message, 
to  seek  a  decision  from  44  That  tribunal  whose 
convictions  so  seldom  err  and  against  whose 
will  I  have  no  policy  to  enforce."  (Ap- 
plause.) Because  he  believed  in  his  country- 
men, he  had  faith  in  his  country;  and  he 
expressed  the  firm  conviction  that  the  civil- 
ized world  is  tending  toward  government  by 
the  people  through  their  chosen  representa- 


tives.  44 1  do  not  share,"  said  he  in  his  second 
inaugural,  44  in  the  apprehension  held  by- 
many  as  to  the  danger  of  governments 
being  weakened  or  destroyed  by  reason  of 
the  extension  of  their  territory.  Applause*) 
Commerce,  education,  rapid  transit  of  thought 
and  matter  by  telegraph  have  changed  all 
this."  It  is  not  possible  to  think  of  him  in 
the  midst  of  such  problems  as  now  besets 
our  affairs,  deliberately  adding  to  the  Na- 
tional burden  by  defaming  his  country  in 
order  to  exalt  the  motives  of  a  mob  of 
swift  footed  barbarians  in  the  Phillipine 
Islands*  At  least  once  in  his  administration, 
at  a  crisis  in  the  Cuban  situation,  he  ordered 
the  Navy  to  prepare  for  action,  and  if  the 
brief  conflict  with  Spain,  which  the  present 
government  was  not  able  to  avoid,  had  come 
in  his  time,  it  would  simply  have  anticipated 
the  grave  events  of  the  past  year ;  leaving 
us  twenty  years  ago,  with  vastly  less  prep- 
aration, exactly  where  we  are  to-day.  In 
that  case  who  can  imagine  General  Grant 
directing  the  Navy  to  throw  its  victories 
into  the  sea,  or  ordering  our  brave  little 
armies  of  occupation  to  run  headlong  for 
their  transports,   leaving   life    and  property 


and  the  social  order  in  the  keeping  of  half- 
naked  tribes*  (Applause*)  It  requires  no 
fanciful  interpretation  of  the  biography  of 
General  Grant  to  hear  the  voice  of  the  old 
Commander,  the  voice  of  the  battle  fields  on 
which  the  flag  of  the  American  Republic 
was  sanctified  to  the  service  of  civilization, 
bidding  his  countrymen  go  forward  in  the 
fear  of  God,  strong  and  patient  under  the 
responsibilities  of  their  day  and  generation. 

You  have  builded  here  a  stately  tomb 
which  shall  bear  his  name  and  guard  his 
dust  till  the  Heavens  be  no  more.  "When 
the  Nation  builds  to  him  a  monument  in  its 
Capitol,  as  they  one  day  will,  it  will  not 
bear  the  inscription  of  his  name,  for  like 
the  column  of  Waterloo,  proposed  for  Well- 
ington in  the  fiction  of  Victor  Hugo,  instead 
of  the  figure  of  a  man  it  will  bear  on  high 
the  statute  of  a  people.  (Prolonged  Ap- 
plause.) 


SPEECH  OF  Mr.  AUGUSTUS  THOMAS. 


General  Swayne  in  introducing  Mr  Thomas  said  : 

"We  have  with  us  to-night  a  leading  author  and 
playwright,  Mi,  Augustus  H.  Thomas* 


..  CHAIRMAN  and  Gentlemen  of  the 


troducing  me  is  no  greater  than  the  will- 
ingness with  which  I  waive  all  claims  to 
the  capital  H  that  he  so  generously  placed 
in  my  name,  (laughter)  and,  while  I  am 
emboldened  to  take  this  seeming  exception 
to  one  utterance  of  his,  I  should  like,  as  a 
man  coming  from  that  section  of  our  country 
lying  West  of  the  Mississippi,  to  say,  for 
its  credit,  that  I  saw  nothing  in  the  splendid 
oration  of  the  gentlemen  from  Iowa  (Mr. 
Dolliver)  to  indicate  that  he  needed  sleep. 
(Laughter.)  The  Toastmaster,  in  introduc- 
ing him,  remarked  the  astonishing  fact  that 
the  orator  had  arrived  in  the  City  and  had 
consented  to  keep  his  appointment  at  this 


Association : 

The  Toastmaster's  pleasure  in  in- 


dinner  without  the  preparation  of  slumber. 
We  Western  folks  don't  prepare  for  a  ban- 
quet that  way.  (Laughter.)  We  generally 
observe  a  rigid  preliminary  fast.  (Laugh- 
ter.) Nap  after  the  feast,  yes,  not  before. 
(Laughter.)  I  am  inclined  to  think  that 
General  Swayne  was  influenced  by  over- 
hearing a  story  that  the  distinguished  at- 
torney on  my  left  (Mr.  Elihu  Root)  told 
me  during  the  dinner.  A  resident  of  Phil- 
adelphia went  to  his  doctor  to  get  a  rem- 
edy for  imsomnia.  The  doctor  made  a 
minute  examination  of  the  man,  questioning 
him  closely,  and  said,  "Well,  there  doesn't 
seem  to  be  anything  the  matter  with  you, 
sir,  certainly  nothing  organic.  I  think,  if 
you  were  to  take  a  glass  of  beer,  some  light 
beer,  let  us  say  Lemp's,"  made  in  St.  Louis 
(laughter).  I  am  also  requested  to  adver- 
tise the  Jamison  whiskey  (laughter).  The 
doctor  said.  "Drink  one  glass  of  the  beer 
before  retiring,  and  I  think  you'll  find 
your  insomnia  overcome." 

"Why,  bless  your  doctor,"  the  Phila- 
delphian  answered,  "I  sleep  all  right  at 
night,  it's  the  daytime  that  bothers  me." 
(Laughter.) 


I  think  it  was  General  Horace  Porter 
(applause)  who  said:  "Boston  is  not  a 
locality,  it  is  a  state  of  mind."  (Laughter.) 
To  me,  Grant  is  not  a  personage*  He  is  an 
epoch.  I  was  not,  as  has  been  suggested,  a 
school  boy  when  Grant  was  making  history. 
I  have  no  recollection  of  his  deeds.  All  my 
inspiration,  at  that  time,  was  drawn  from  the 
bottle,  that  source  of  much  of  our  present 
enthusiasm.  I  sprang  to  arms,  when  the 
war  began,  but  the  arms  were  my  mother's. 
(Laughter)  That  tragic  period,  so  full  of 
happening  for  many  of  the  gentlemen  here, 
was  to  me  a  morning  and  a  night. 

My  own  boy,  aged  four,  said  to  me  yes- 
terday, "Father,  don't  you  remember  that 
day  when  we  went  to  the  beach?  There 
was  a  wood  fire  in  the  big  fireplace  at 
night."  He  had  been  to  the  beach  nearly 
every  summer  day  in  his  little  life,  and 
every  winter  evening  had  seen  a  wood  fire 
in  the  big  fireplace.  For  him,  the  water  and  a 
blazing  fire  epitomized  his  life,  and  upon  his 
tender  memory,  the  summer  and  the  winter, 
which  the  beach  and  hearth  expressed,  were 
a  single  day.  I  understood  him,  because  my 
own  earliest  recollections  are  so  compressed. 


There  is  a  morning,  filled  with  the  music 
of  martial  bands,  and  the  color  of  waving 
banners*  I  am  just  tall  enough  to  reach  the 
door  knob  with  my  mother's  help — A  booted 
trooper  at  the  door  asks  for  Captain  Thomas, 
while  in  the  gutter  stand  two  champing 
steeds,  with  saddles  of  black  and  brass,  deep 
as  the  baby's  cradle*  I  see  my  father  ride 
through  the  city  Park,  and  note,  with  won- 
derment, my  mother's  tears.  The  sound  of 
"Grant — Grant — Grant — n  is  through  it  all 
like  some  infiltrating  and  saturating  echo — 
that  meaningless  sound  of  ' '  Grant,"  which 
seems  to  have  some  trouble  with  another 
called  "  Henry  Donelson,"  and  a  third  entity, 
Pittsburg,  that  is  always  landing.  There  are 
shouts  and  salvos,  and  much  marching  of 
men.  "General  Lyon  No,  4,"  and,  on  a 
banner,  the  picture  of  a  slight,  and  blue-eyed 
soldier,  with,  above,  the  legend,  "Thy  Radi- 
calism saved  Missouri."  Mingling  with  the 
cheers  that  greet  these  colors,  there  is  the 
derisive  song: 

"It  was  on  the  tenth  of  May, 
Captain  Kelly  was  away, 
The  Hessians  surrounded  Camp  Jackson." 

Years  afterwards,  I  learned  that  the 
"Hessians"  were  the  loyal  Germans  of  St. 


Louis,  who  marched  to  her  defence  under 
Frank  P.  Blair.  (Applause*)  The  man, 
whose  radicalism  had  taken  the  State  from 
her  intention  to  secede,  and  into  the  doubtful 
column,  was  the  hero  of  Wilson  Creek,  the 
same  Lyon,  who  so  won  the  confidence  of 
the  Northern  adherents,  when  the  national 
Arsenal  was  menaced,  and  when  his  super- 
iors, fearing;  that  some  nearby  buildings 
would  make  it  impossible  for  him  to  observe 
an  approaching  enemy,  asked  Lyon  how  he 
proposed  to  meet  that  difficulty.  He  an- 
swered, 44  When  I  hear  that  Price  has  started, 
I  shall  blow  up  those  buildings  with  a  few 
kegs  of  gunpowder/* 

Another  happening  of  that  Homeric  day, 
is  a  Fair,  where  my  mother  holds  me  high 
in  the  crowd,  that  I  may  see  a  child,  but 
little  older  than  myself,  impersonating  the 
"Old  "Woman  who  lived  in  a  Shoe,  and  had 
so  many  children  she  didn't  know  what  to 
do."  I  am  told  that  the  little  girl  with  the 
cap  and  spectacles  is  Nellie  Grant,  selling  her 
dolls  to  buy  clothes  for  soldiers;  and  now 
there  drifts  into  my  ideas  vaguely  the  con- 
ception that  this  echo,  this  Shibboleth,  this 
"Grant"  is  man,  a  father,  not  nearly  so 


kind,  and  low-voiced  as  my  own  father,  not 
so  tender,  nor  so  full  of  laughter,  nor  so  long 
away  from  home  as  my  father,  but  still  a 
father,  tangible  and  human,  and,  maybe, 
good  to  that  little  girl,  at  whom  the  men 
and  women  wave  their  handkerchiefs. 

Then  there  is  the  illumination,  when  the 
night  is  come*  The  candles  stuck  in  pota- 
toes behind  the  tri-colored  tissue  paper  in 
the  windows,  and  the  tar  barrels  are  crack- 
ling in  the  street.  Suddenly  all  is  dark.  I 
am  frightened  with  an  undefined  menace. 
The  young  mother,  in  her  night-robe  is 
kneeling  with  me  at  the  open  window,  one 
blanket  above  us  both — the  sky  filled  with 
the  twinkle  of  the  summer  stars,  and  the 
air  heavy  with  the  weedy  smell  from  the 
bottom  lands  of  Illinois.  Yet  it  is  none  of 
these,  but  rather  a  tump-tump-tump-like 
pulse,  a  rythm,  that  my  mother  whispers  is 
the  tramp  of  soldiers. 

It  was  the  heart-beat  of  a  startled  nation. 

I  can  recall  it  now,  with  all  the  mystery 
and  magic  of  the  potent  and  unseen,  and  it 
is  moving  to  some  ghost-like  place,  called 
"Island  No.  10"  or  " Vicksburg,"  and 
Grant  is  there  in  whispers. 


That  is  my  "Grant,"  a  member  of  that 
Apocrypha  of  the  nursery,  to  which  belong1 
the  Bluebeards,  and  the  Giant-Killers* 

I  saw  him  once,  in  the  Spring  of  J870f 
at  "Washington,  when  the  Senate  and  House 
had  gathered  in  the  Hall  of  Representatives, 
at  the  funeral  of  General  George  Thomas* 
(Applause)  The  imperial  Blaine  was  in  the 
chair,  and  in  a  semicircle  of  seats  in  front 
of  his  desk,  were  the  Cabinet  and  a  little, 
high-shouldered,  round-headed  man  with 
whiskers*  Grant!  I  felt  the  same  shock 
that  a  little  girl  of  to-day,  full  of  "Alice  in 
Wonderland"  would  feel,  if  she  were  shown 
Lewis  Carroll,  and  told  "that  is  your 
story." 

But  that  wasn't  Grant,  any  more  than 
those  ashes  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  are 
Grant*  That  was  only  Grant's  contact 
with  humanity — the  visible  point,  through 
which  circled  and  passed,  the  benign  and 
sympathetic  currents  of  a  universe*  And 
when  I  heard  the  guns  of  the  Raleigh,  the 
other  day,  roaring  their  salute  to  the  white, 
and  silent  edifice  on  Riverside,  while  the 
multitudes  upon  two  shores  made  answer 
for  the  nation,  I  felt  that  the  Grant  of  my 


boyhood,  that  awesome  factor,  which  had 
been  alarm  and  lullaby,  was  here  again. 

Alexander  was  a  soldier,  impulsively  and 
unevenly  personal.  He  ordered  for  the  wife 
of  Darius  the  funeral  of  an  Empress,  and 
gave  the  ransom  of  a  kingdom  to  a  com- 
mon soldier,  who  had  shared  the  burden  of 
a  mule;  but  he  destroyed  the  independence 
of  the  Grecian  States,  and  enforced  the  sep- 
ulture of  Democracy  for  nearly  two  thousand 
years*  Napoleon  was  a  brilliant  Captain, 
invulnerable  in  attack,  and  the  incarnation 
of  Empire,  but  he  was  so  jealous  of  pref- 
erence, that  he  wrestled  with  the  Pope  at 
his  coronation,  in  a  scrabble  to  be  the  first 
into  his  chariot.  Grant  wore  an  old  coat, 
that  a  vanquished  commander  might  not 
feel  the  pomp  of  victory,  and  when  he 
refused  to  take  the  side-arms  of  the  officers, 
and  the  horses  of  the  private  soldiers, 
though  he  ran  counter  to  the  rancor  and 
fever  of  his  day  he  anticipated  the  gener- 
osity of  a  generation  yet  unborn  (Applause.) 

The  Chairman — "The  capital  H  which 
I  put  into  Mr.  Thomas'  name,  was  the  one 
he  left  out  of  the  name  of  General  George 
K.  Thomas."  (Laughter.) 

Mr.  Thomas — "I  dropped  the  H  in  def- 
erence to  the  Member  of  Parliament  on  my 
right.    (Mr.  Jamison.)  (Laughter.) 


) 


1 


CIA! 


